Animal Instincts [The Andersons 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (19 page)

Ramona continued as though she hadn’t heard. “Dad will turn over a card from the pack, and he’ll keep turning them until he shows one that matches a card in his hand. For instance, if he turns over a nine of diamonds, then he either has to have a diamond or another nine from the other suits. With me so far?”

Rex nodded and picked up the cards Ross Senior had dealt him.

“Once he’s matched a card, the game starts, and we take turns going clockwise. Your card always has to match the suit or number laid. If it doesn’t, then you miss a turn. Now this is where it gets interesting. If you place down a two, then the person on your left picks up two cards from the deck. If you have a three, they pick up the same number. If you have a seven, whether red or black, then we all swap hands. Which comes in rather useful if the person on your right has only one card left.”

“Watch Mona for that,” Ross Junior told Rex. “Apart from leaving the john like a bomb site, it’s another nasty habit of hers.”

“If you have a black jack,” Ramona continued, reaching around Rex and punching her brother in the arm, “then the next person has to pick up seven cards. The only way to cancel it out is if they have a red jack. Or if, like
Junior
, who always seems to have a black jack, you can be really nasty and the next person has to pick up fourteen cards from the pack. To carry on, the card after either a black or a red jack has to match the suit. They’re the rules. Got it?”

“Just one thing,” Rex asked Ramona. “What does the winner get as a prize?”

“The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

“Funny.”

“You did ask.”

“They become dealer for the next game,” Samantha helpfully supplied.

“Oh, but you’re not gonna win, Rex,” Ross Junior said with a good-natured smirk.

“Really?” Rex kept a straight face as he glanced at his hand. Lucky or what? He had three black jacks—two clubs and one spade. He sneaked a peek at Ramona’s hand. No, she didn’t have any sevens. He would have snuck a peek at Ross’s hand. However, it seemed he liked to keep his cards quite literally close to his chest. “Then let the game begin.”

Ramona laid a four of spades on top of her father’s four of diamonds and then prodded Rex with her elbow. “Smug SOB.”

“I shall pretend I didn’t hear that, Ramona,” he murmured. Then, placing the jack of spades on the upturned pile of cards, said, “Pick up seven, Junior.”

“Screw you, Rover!” was Ross Junior’s reply as he cancelled it out with a jack of hearts.

“Excuse me? Rover?”

“Yeah. Like that of a dog. Rex is a dog’s name, too, isn’t it? Or are you named after the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex?”

“Boys, boys!” Jess admonished, waving her hands in the air like a referee. “This is a friendly game. We treat each other with respect.”

“Uh-oh, my wife’s showing her Machiavellian side,” Ross Senior chuckled as he blew her a kiss. “I’m so glad I’m not sitting next to her.”

“Actually, dearest husband, I’ve got to miss a turn. And it’s the quiet ones you’ve got to watch,” Jess added, winking at Samantha, who, to Rex’s astonishment, fashioned her mouth into one hell of a sly smile as she laid a seven of hearts down. Everybody groaned. Rex’s being the loudest of them all.

“Whoa, what have we here?” Ross Junior smirked as he took Rex’s cards and saw the two black jacks. However, before he could gloat further, his father placed another seven, this time a club, on the pile and they all changed hands again.

Despite the crap hand he was given, Rex won the first game easily. A painful dig in the side from Ramona halted the smug comment, and he dealt the cards for a second game. He won that, too.

“I think there’s some serious cheating going on here,” Ross Junior grumbled, throwing his cards down in an over-the-top display of mock disgust.

“I don’t cheat. At anything,” Rex added, daring to look at Ramona. She quickly turned away, but not before he caught sight of something that made his heart do a complete flip-flop. He quickly gathered the cards and began to shuffle, anything to stop him from drawing Ramona into his arms and fusing his mouth to hers to find out if she possessed the same feelings as what he did for her.

Ross Junior then jumped to his feet. “Damn! Look at the time. If I don’t leave now, I’ll miss my flight.”

“Do you want a lift to the airport?”

“No,” Ross Junior replied to his father’s question. “Matt said to swing by the station and he’d take me.”

“Lights flashing and sirens blaring?” Ramona asked with a grin.

Ross Junior returned the grin, then grabbing Rex’s arm and yanking him up, the cards flying everywhere, he pulled him over to the front door. “Look after Mona,” he murmured, picking up and slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“I will,” Rex promised and then stood aside to let everybody say their good-byes.

After a third game, again which he won, Rex found himself tasked with the mountain of washing up. He didn’t believe the excuse that the dishwasher was on the fritz, but that it was actually some kind of punishment for beating the Andersons not once, but three times at their version of blackjack.

Although, “punishment” wasn’t quite the correct description. Carried out with much fun and frivolity, Rex felt the mundane chore, coupled with the card games and the fact that he’d been invited for Sunday lunch in the first place, only cemented his place in the Anderson family. It was ridiculous in some ways, but not at seeing a laughing and somewhat relaxed Samantha.

The knowledge he was playing some part in distracting her from obvious painful memories felt good and right. He liked making Samantha smile because if she was happy, then so was Ramona. And he wanted nothing more than to make Ramona very happy indeed. The woman was in his blood, his bones, his heart, his soul.

However, that said, there was something in danger of hitting the fan, and that was his promise not to touch Ramona. She had never once righted her bra strap, and it
had
been
driving him nuts. She seemed to be teasing and testing him at the same time. She then surreptitiously flicked his ass with the dishtowel, and Rex knew what he had to do.

He asked Jess where the bathroom was and was pointed upstairs, then just as surreptitiously beckoned with his finger at Ramona to follow him. She didn’t, not that he really expected her to. However, when he returned, he found her waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “I can’t drive. I’ve had a couple of whiskies. And I don’t feel like walking home, either. How many have you had?” he nonchalantly asked, despite knowing the answer.

Her mouth might have taken a downward curl, but those striking green gems glinted wickedly. “Well, if your eyes hadn’t been glued to my tits, you would have noticed my glass contained OJ.”

“Come home with me, Ramona. Please.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Samantha asked, joining them.

You inconsiderate jerk, Latimer!
There he went, putting his love life and his cock before Samantha’s need to be with her sister. “Oh, ah, I was saying we’re always busy Monday mornings, and tomorrow’s no exception. So I was going home to get an early night.”

“Why don’t you go with him, Mona? I’ll be all right. I’ve got Mom and Dad. And Matt will be back later. And Rex? When you get home, give Mona a cuddle. I feel that comfort that you give her. It makes me feel safe.”

Ah. When he got home, Rex planned to do more than give Ramona a cuddle. Yes, that would come at the end, but the part in between now struck him as disconcerting. What did Samantha feel when he made love to her sister? Swing the jungle vines with her? One look at Ramona’s flushed cheeks, and he had his answer. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it. Well, actually, with indecision now written all over Ramona’s face, yes there was. “Stay. I’ll walk home. Just bring my SUV back tomorrow.”

* * * *

Ramona really wasn’t surprised that Rex had done a complete U-turn and insisted she stayed with Samantha. She needed to stay. No, really she did. Her face was already on fire because what she intended to do with Rex once they got home didn’t involve a cuddle. And knowing her sister would feel a sight more than comfort and safety was something she didn’t want to dwell upon.

However, Samantha was equally insistent, and before either of them could argue further, Ramona found herself and Rex outside, the front door closed in their faces.
Oh, well. Perhaps Sammy will go to bed early.

“I didn’t get to thank your parents for lunch.”

Just as Rex said that, her parents opened the door, knowing smiles plastered all over their faces.

“Forgot to ask, Rex,” they said in unison. “You’ll come next Saturday? Spend the day. It’s Ramona’s and Samantha’s birthday. You did know, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t know,” Rex said, casting a frown at Ramona.

“So, it that a yes, then?”

Mega crap thrice over! Matchmaking parents definitely did not constitute as baby steps. Ramona shoved Rex down the veranda steps and over to his SUV before an answer could slip through his sensual lips. Holding out her hand, he dropped his keys into her palm and she pointed to the passenger side.

They rode home in silence. She switched off the ignition and turned to face Rex, intent on telling him she was now going to screw his cock off, but noticed his attention was focused on the setting sun. Even when he removed his seat belt, his eyes never wavered from the gold-tinted earth.

Eventually, when gold transformed into purple, Rex looked her way. With his head tilted to one side and a smile playing at the corners of his sensual mouth, Ramona knew he was going to make some romantic remark, either that or chastise her for not mentioning her birthday.

She inhaled deeply, his spicy cologne faded by time, yet still potent enough to excite her. It was time for another baby step. An adventurous baby step. “Have you ever made out in a vehicle?”

He ignored her. “So, it’s your birthday Saturday. What would you like from me, present-wise?”

“An answer to my question.”

“In a minute.”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “Oh, I don’t know. Surprise me.”

A grin formed as he raked his gaze over her. “Surprise you? Will do.”

“So going back to my question…?”

His grin widened. “Not for a while. You?”

“My first time was in the back seat of a Chevy. I was twenty. His name was Brian Leftcourt. And he cheated on me the very next day.”

“Like I said, I don’t cheat.”

While Rex reclined the passenger seat, Ramona climbed over the center console. His hands spanned her waist as he pulled her down to lay fully on him, her breasts pressed flat on his chest, his thighs cradling hers. Dampness invaded her panties, and she almost whooped with delight at the hard-on he already sported, and to which he firmly pressed against her.

Apart from their breathing, silence descended as for one very long moment he brought one hand up to lightly touch her gel-spiked hair. “I love your hair,” he murmured. “It’s very becoming. And very sexy.”

Then, trailing his fingers around to her nape, Rex tugged Ramona’s head down and their lips locked in a demanding kiss that neither was willing to give the upper hand to.

The windows soon fogged, the moist film cocooning them from Silver Creek. From Montana. Indeed, from the rest of the world. Rex’s hunger-driven kiss then softened, his tongue tender as he flicked at the corners of her mouth. That worried Ramona. She broke away and, sliding down his body, settled herself in the footwell, her hands on the pronounced ridge of his hard cock straining against the denim. His zipper sang at the same time a low groan slipped from his throat.

“Ramona, are you going to do what I think you’re going to do? Ah, yes, you are,” Rex said as she took the entire length of his freed and hard cock into her mouth. He cupped her head in one hand, the other he fisted at his side. She suckled deep, then released him and drew her tongue up his rigid shaft and over the slit, lapping up a leaking drop of cum. Damn, he tasted good.

He again groaned low in his throat. “Darlin’, that’s so good.”

“Damn! I can’t get to your nuts.”

He laughed then, grasping her by the upper arms, dragged her back up his body and latched his mouth onto hers. His hands moved downward to cup her ass and kneaded, his fingers digging into the soft denim even as he thrust upward, grinding his hard cock against her pussy. Silently begging for more, she purred into his mouth, and he groaned low in his throat for a third time.

Ramona wanted Rex bad, but her jeans were preventing where she wanted him the most, or rather, where she wanted his steel-hard cock. “Gotta have you inside me!”

Without further ado, and with a few wiggles, a few shimmies, four hands, and his two feet, they managed to get her jeans, along with her panties, down her legs and over her Nikes. She straddled him, her knees gripping his thighs, and took hold of his cock ready to impale herself on him, but he fumbled for the handle and opened the door. “Rex, what’re you doing?”

“Let’s take this further, and make out
on
a vehicle.”

Yes, what an adventurous baby step! Ramona giggled as butt first she got out of the passenger side of Rex’s SUV and went around to the bonnet. But Rex, definitely in adventurous mode, and like a fireman, swung her up onto his shoulder and carried her over to her truck.